The Many Colorful Backgrounds of Peace Corps Volunteers

Since I finally bought a modem and the first month is free… I’ve been on a lot lately. Too much time I say! And usually the internet works in spurts of a half hour here, half hour there. Other times I’m walking in circles on my roof looking for the sweet spot. Why do I bring this up? Well after my last post, I got bored… read one of my very first posts.

The post was about things I thought I might miss and what I was looking forward to the most. The part of that post that really made me chuckle was I said I was looking forward to meeting the other volunteers and I wondered if any would be crazy like me… I could not have guessed then the amount of characters I’ve met through this whole process. I say characters in a very endearing way.

I’m trying to remember before I joined the Peace Corps what I thought actual volunteers must be like, in a very general, stereotyping way. Well Peace Corps is competitive… and before I came I thought this process was cut throat. So I assumed volunteers here must have an open mind, sense of adventure, smart, hard workers, nailed the interviews, and specifically to health I thought… well no way you’re in health without having some sort of background in health. I mean they should have volunteered in some way before right? Well let’s just say our health staj (training group) was so much more hodge podge, out of left field, group of people than I expected. Like I said we’ve got some characters.

Also I’m writing this just to be some sort of support to people who want to join Peace Corps, but might think they haven’t done enough or taken a language or any reason you might doubt being accepted. It’s amazing the diversity that Peace Corps has and Morocco has it all.

I’ll start in Azilal province, because we definitely have a lot of diversity. First off we have the oldest volunteer ever in the Peace Corps (86 I think?) and the youngest volunteer for Morocco (Just turned 21 or 22 I forget…?)! So the age range right there says a lot. There are quite a few of us straight out of college, but more than I expected in the late 20’s early 30’s range. One guy in health was a history major and sold insurance in a mall before coming! One health girl studied forensics and for a time volunteered in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. We have a civil engineer in Azilal and an officer in the Air Force turned journalist. The small business development volunteer left a job in the banking/the money industry (I’m so bad with economics, I have no idea what she did. Financial advisor? Something that made lots of money). One youth development volunteer has a masters in War Studies from a college in London.

Our crew comes from all over the States. West coast has a strong showing, throw some Texas in there, Midwest represents with Illinois and Wisconsin, then head out to Philadelphia and Boston. We’re from all over!

So even just in Azilal we all have pretty interesting, diverse backgrounds. A few other stand outs in our health training group… There is a veterinarian, a retired couple who decided to join later in life, because their son joined and had such a good experience, a lot of people with backgrounds working with HIV/Aids either in clinics or outreach, a few who studied classical Arabic in either Jordan or Lebanon, people who have lived all over the world, Singapore, Italy, France, and some like me who have barely made it out of their state.

Just like the differences in our backgrounds, a lot of us come for so many different reasons. Sometimes with us newbies out of college… It’s a I have no idea what else to do now sort of thing. Sometimes Peace Corps is the stepping stone to working in the Foreign Service. A lot of times, it’s an adventure, I’ve always wanted to try this thing. So so many reasons.

I like to think I came here for the right reasons and I will stay for the right reasons. I struggled a lot with my reasons for coming and how those reasons have changed and evolved. Some of them… like the big one… I have no idea what I’m doing in life, so I’ll take 2 years to try and figure that out… Well I figured that out. The big one and after you figure out the big one… well now I feel like I should be doing, what I just figured out. Getting closer to that ultimate goal. And so I had to re-evaluate my experience here and what I wanted from it.

I mentioned to a friend that I thought about leaving early after a year of service, if my current situation hadn’t changed at all. This friend’s response was “So you can do that. You can leave? I had no idea.”. And I write that because I think a lot of people at home might think similarly. This is a volunteer program and yeah for many different reasons volunteers may choose to or have to leave early. I gave myself such a hard time, because I didn’t want to feel like I was giving up or quitting. But honestly with all the different reasons for joining Peace Corps, I say if ever a volunteer’s reasons become resolved or change or they’re just plain unhappy… then you should have all the support in the world from Peace Corps and home on making the decision to return early or not.

In Azilal province, there was a health volunteer who ended his service early and I only got to know him for a month or two. He explained that he had gotten from this experience all he had come for and had hoped for. He didn’t need the two years to accomplish what he wanted and had some great oppurtunities and relationships waiting at home. At the time I didn’t think badly of this person, but I’m not sure I fully understood, until I started having similar feelings. It’s amazing the ups and downs of this experience.

But! Again I write all this to be a support to other volunteers, other hopefuls, and to myself when I have a bad day and am too tired or frustrated to remember all this. Also isn’t it pretty cool we have a 80 something volunteer in Morocco! That’s like saying hey Mom wanna join the Peace Corps when I’m older than you are now! Shoot! I can’t imagine my 80 year old self thinking learning a new language is a good idea… No sir. Even if I’m only in my 60’s and retired… no thanks. So we’re a pretty cool bunch and I hope that this short post paints a picture of Peace Corps Morocco for you all.